Spotlight On: Mark DiBiasio

Mark DiBiasio is a registered Republican in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, which means his mailbox is brimming with campaign mailers.

Ten Republicans are trying to win the May 8primary this year. But one particular candidate, wealthy businessman and former state Sen. Robert Pittenger, is bombarding voters with glossy paper.

“I get half a dozen fliers from him in the same week – sometimes twice a day,” said DiBiasio, 55, an IT consultant who runs a local blog in the Charlotte suburbs.

DiBiasio sent one of Pittenger’s mailers to Spin Detectors. We noticed his tweet about an attack mailer and asked him for a copy. We found the flier falsely claims that one of Pettinger’s opponents was a “Big Money Donor to Democrats” and that another challenger broke a tax pledge.

DiBiasio supports Dan Barry, one of the mailer’s targets. But DiBiasio said he has a problem with attack ads in general.

“I think they’re important if they’re issue related,” DiBiasio said. “But these are personal attacks. I haven’t liked personal attacks since they became more prevalent in the 1990s. Attack ads often damage the attacker more than they do the intended victim.”

– Ben Finley

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